Tracey Emin: Why are women artists paid less than men?

Artist Tracey Emin says female artists’ works sells for much less than those by men of similar abilitiesPhoto: GEOFF PUGH FOR THE TELEGRAPH

By Tim Walker

6:00PM GMT 21 Jan 2014

Since Charles Saatchi bought her unmade bed for £150,000 in 1998, Tracey Emin has gone on to become one of Britain’s richest artists. She insists that she would, however, be much wealthier if she had been born a man.

Emin, 50, says female artists’ works sells for much less than those by men of similar abilities.

“Louise Bourgeois has the highest female sales price at auction, but it’s so far below her male counterparts, it’s unbelievable,” she tells Time Out, referring to the late French-American artist and sculptor. “Were she a man it would be 10 times more.”

Emin claims that she is the victim of sexist preconceptions in the art world. “It’s kind of odd, because I am feisty and I’m quite clear about what I want, especially when I’m working,” she says.

“There are two kinds of people out there: people who think I’m fantastic to work with because I’m driven and I say what I want; and people who think I’m some screaming, demanding woman when, actually, if I was a man, they would think I had direction and was focused.”

The artist took part in a Marks & Spencer advertising campaign last year which featured prominent women from a range of different careers. Emin says she agreed to it because she wanted to raise the profile of woman artists.

“Female artists exist, and we work really hard and we are successful,” she says. “It gets into people’s psyche.”

Emin, who once appliquéd the inside of a tent with the names of her former lovers for the work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, does not have any children.

“People don’t really understand that someone could be happy not having children,” she says. “If I was to go, 'I tried but it never happened,’ people would feel sorry for me and understand.

“But I’m triumphantly going, 'Brilliant! I can buy an apartment in New York because I don’t have to pay school fees! I can have a sports car because I don’t need to have a four-wheel-drive to keep my kids safe. I can do whatever I want to do.’ It’s like a celebration.”